ARTIST PLAYGROUND’S SECOND SEASON SET TO OPENWITH “HAPPINESS IS A PEARL” ON JUNE 9

“Happiness is a Pearl,” an original play penned by Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature Hall of Famer Rody Vera revolves around three characters ---Kenji, a male courtesan; Maria, a poor Pinay Japayuki; and Mari, a wife who falls in lovewith Kenji.

Before becoming a prostitute in a club in Kabukicho, Tokyo, Mari was married to a wealthy businessman. But Mari’s billionaire husband soon leaves her when she becomes attached to a male gigolo named Kenji, who has a pearl stitched under the skin of his penis. However, Kenji sets his eyes on a poverty-stricken Filipina entertainer named Maria. Intertwined by fate and struggles, how will Kenji, Maria, and Mari find the true meaning of love and happiness ?

REVIEWS

“Happiness is A Pearl” is a barbed and brilliant theater production on a small stage made magnificent by Paule, together with his artistic and production teams, as they cleverly show how ordinary mortals can be enticed with, and entangled in, the sticky, problematic space separating love and lust, desire and devotion - IBARRA MATEO, GMA NEWS ONLINE

"The aptly named 30-seater The Little Room Upstairs at Landsdale Tower in Mother Ignacia Ave., Quezon City, pushes the boundaries of intimate, experimental theater by removing the veil of mystery that surrounds the need for companionship, sex, and ultimately love in Artist Playground’s current production, “Happiness is a Pearl.” - CORA LLAMAS, PHILIPPINES DAILY INQUIRER

"Whether you leave the theater struck by the intensity of love, or scratching your head wondering what you just saw, “Happiness is a Pearl” is proof that storytelling doesn’t really need much to shock and awe." - NIKKI FRANCISCO, THEATER FANS MANILA